


SSJ 2020

by concerto97



Category: Super Science Friends, Super Science Friends (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:26:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 30
Words: 8,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24503836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/concerto97/pseuds/concerto97
Summary: A compilation of One Shots for Super Science June 2020. Contains Insights into their possible life before joining the team.
Kudos: 20





	1. Friendship

_Friendship was not the only thing that mattered in their lives, but it was the only thing they had now._

The Just Okay Science Friends knew that they could never equal their super counterparts. After all, who were they compared to them? Granted, they had made important discoveries in their lives, but who would ever notice the six of them compared to the likes of Einstein and Curie?  
  


Although the team tried to ease each others’ fears, the six of them _knew_ that those fears would stay.

And why wouldn’t they? The six of them have felt unimaginable pain, seen horrors they wished the others were spared from. If anything, their fears were inevitable.

George was born during the Civil War, and he was a toddler when the chains of slavery were broken. But despite it all, the rivers of prejudice ran deep. He remembered the lynching and the murder of so many people such as himself. He remembered getting rejected by many colleges before Highland, all because of his race. Sometimes, though he never admitted it, he wondered how the war would change the civil rights movement, if there even _was_ an impact to begin with.

Gerty, the ray of sunshine of the group, was born at a time when women were virtually invisible in public life - always the housewives, always the stay-at-home parent, never out there and making revolutionary discoveries. And when they discovered something amazing, their achievements were always overlooked. Her faith didn’t exactly help either, especially during a time where anti-Semitic rhetoric ran rampant in Europe. Despite her cheerfulness, she silently wished that she could do something about the situation. Even if she couldn't do much ten feet under.

Louis, as unusual as his power was, had been through a heartbreak that any parent would never want to go through – outliving and burying their children. When the team would tell stories of their families in distant lands, he could only sit around silently, haunted still by their deaths. He wished he could explain why he never said anything about a family, why he tried to choke back tears from his eyes. And in the midst of the war, he would feel sorrow for all the parents that will go through the same fate, whether they knew it or not.

Archimedes, the mathematical genius of the group, would sometimes stare at the ceiling at night, clutching his notebook like a lifeline. And in a way, it was. For he knew that the others were scared of his knowledge, of the unnaturalness of his predictions. He knew many things, and it was translated into hasty scribbles and words in his notebook. Despite his eccentric genius, sometimes, he wished he never knew how this war would end – a sea of blood staining the hands of leaders.

Gregor was used to being overlooked by the others, he felt it almost normal for it to occur. It was apparent from his correspondences with not only Carl Nägeli, but with his contemporaries as well. He couldn't help but discern their poorly masked disinterest. It was something that happened frequently, but something he never gotten used to. And as brilliant as Gregor’s mind was, it had a nasty tendency to cloud his self-esteem. Did his work matter now, if _ever_? Did _he_ even matter to the team? At night, when the basement is silent, he would go to sleep, wishing that he, along with the unsung heroes of war, would get appreciation for what they had done.

Georges, giant teddy bear that he was, tended to wake up with a jolt in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat from his nightmares. Unlike the others, he had fought in war first hand and seen young men such as himself die in the name of their country. And _god_ , the way they died! Their face paling as they desperately try to breathe for the last time, before falling limp. _Dead_. He hated how after all these years, a replay of history had to be made, and how his memories rushed back to him so quickly. They say people forget things when they are older. But the truth was that it was a _lie_. After all these years, he couldn’t forget the horrors of war. And he knew that he, along with the soldiers in war, never will.

And as different as they were, the six of them found comfort in soft words and hope in each other’s presence. Though they didn’t quite have the fame or respect that they deserved, they had their friendship.

And that was enough.


	2. Reward

_Sometimes, Gregor wanted something for his paper. Something worth more than fame._

Gregor Mendel knew that his time would come, eventually. Apparently, he knew wrong.

Shut up in the monastery, he gazed at the letter sent by Carl Nägeli. Even though the words were conveyed to him by ink rather than voice, he knew that their discussions were going nowhere. From the way he phrased his sentences, to the curt words that he wrote, it was evident that Nägeli simply wasn't interested in his research. It was something that Gregor should have gotten used to years ago, but never did. He remembered all too well what happened when he first presented his findings. Although his contemporaries tried to hide it, Gregor couldn't help but notice how they dazed off, and the way their stare was a sheet of fresh paper - blank and empty. Maybe it was the hope he still had then, and however small, it would see him through. But this time, his hope had ran out.

After all, he spent eight years of his life conducting his experiments, eight years carefully collecting results, and eight years he would _never_ get back.

And of all the people that should have understood, that should have realized the importance of his work, it was Carl Nägeli. But he didn’t even try to understand it, like a student refusing to concentrate on his studies.

Getting up with a grunt, he walked over to his drawers, his footsteps heavy with his weight. Opening the drawer, he grasped his paper, smooth and soft in his coarse hands.

Solemnly staring at his paper, he felt warm tears well in his eyes.

_Did all his eight years of effort mean nothing?_

_Did it mean anything at all?_

Rejection was like a gush of wind, extinguishing the candle that once was his hope for his paper – _appreciation_.

Appreciation – the reward that meant more than fame.


	3. Slumber

_Sometimes, Albert wished that he could never sleep at all._

Although it happened so long ago, it felt like yesterday.

The apple speeding up towards Newton. Crashing right through his skull like glass. His headless body slumping to the ground, lying in a pool of crimson. _Dead_.

Even though Albert tried to play it cool with the others, especially with Freud, his dreams portrayed the exact opposite.

He hated how he had to be constantly reminded of Newton’s death, how the history books were forever changed because of his mistake. That bearded, bespectacled countenance in the books, that wasn’t Newton at all! And he detested what everything could have been and how it could have been for Newton and him, had he not made that mistake.

As much as he wished to pretend that nothing happened, to deny Newton's death, Albert's brilliant mind, however, forbade it. And at night, when he is deep in slumber, it would always replay that memory without fail.

Slumber is essential, people say. But did it even _matter_ to the boy that wants to forget?


	4. Pigeon

_Darwin’s fondness of pigeons is in a word, eccentric._

If his power didn’t show it, Charles Darwin had always been fond of animals. Pigeons were no exception.

When Charles started researching them, the others were far from excited, everyone except Nikola. It was the only thing they had in common, but it also highlighted their differences. While Nikola viewed them as a companion, as a confidante, Charles saw them differently. Doubtless, he was fond of them. But to him, they were something of interest, a source of fascination and wonder. Put frankly, they were research subjects.

The others never quite understood why he was so fond of pigeons of all animals, especially when they were what Nikola loved dearly, but he didn’t mind their remarks or their questioning stares. To him they were something worth studying.

Striding to one of the many cages in his room, he opened it and gently cupped his hands. The pigeon looked at his opened hands timidly, before hopping into his palms. Slowly walking to the window, he gingerly let the pigeon go.

Pigeons made him feel at peace with himself during this time, and it was okay with him.


	5. Electricity

_…Why?_

After all this time, Thomas Edison was nothing more but a selfish man who knew nothing more than stealing others’ patents.

A thief.

A coward.

A fraud.

This would have been a blow for anyone, but for Nikola it hit him particularly hard.

For it wasn’t just anyone who did it.

It was his boss. Someone he trusted. Someone whose appearance belied the monster within.

As he was packing his suitcases, Nikola couldn’t help but wonder for how long this had been going on. At first, when he saw the latest invention from Edison, he marveled at how similar it was to his plans and patents. Maybe they were on the same wavelength, he thought. Maybe Edison had a mind similar to his own. Maybe they could collaborate together in the future. They could change the world, together...

He was wrong.

As Nikola felt static jump from his hands, he felt his trust for Edison seep away…slowly…

The master of electricity. Betrayed by someone he trusted.


	6. Chemical Element

_Radiant was polonium, but it was nothing compared to the two of them._

If it was not obvious enough, Marie and Pierre were close.

They were always seen in their lab together, always by each other’s side.

  
  
Even if you didn’t know them personally, it would be easy to tell that they loved each other. After all, Pierre shared both his lab and his heart with her, and named an element after her native country of Poland. And she was the woman that supported him when he needed it the most, the pillar of support in his life. Furthermore, Marie always wore her wedding dress in the lab – an ankle length dress made from midnight.

They were so happy as a couple, known by many for their devotion and affection to each other. They were brilliant, shining like radium, and their abilities to work as a team were unparalleled. They were unstoppable, a force in love and in science.

Their love was not as radiant as the elements they discovered. In fact, even the radioactive glow of Polonium and Radium would pale in comparison to their love - ever as devoted to each other and their science.


	7. Revenge

_If anything, the Super Science Friends have ruined his life._

It all started when he was a boy.

When Freud made him lust after his mother like a child craving for sugar. Phillip never understood what he was doing, or why, but he oddly _liked_ it. His tongue dancing with his mother's, as their lips pressed against each other. After that, there was no woman good enough for him.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Nobel Prize Ceremony.

The Prize going to Marie Curie made his family fall apart. He remembers his younger brother’s confusion as his parents yelled in the living room.

The insults to each other pouring like rain.

The slamming of a door.

Mother had left, never to return.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Then he was on the streets, desperately looking for his mother like a lost puppy. As he called to her, she turned, her expression akin to a child receiving a present. Her lips then curled into a smile, and she walked towards him. He had missed her so much...

Moments later, she was run over by the Science Mobile. Her limp body contorted in the worst of ways, she was dead. Never to live again.

Because of the Super Science Friends, he was made to commit incest. Because of the Super Science Friends, his family fell into pieces. Because of the Super Science Friends, his mother lay dead in crimson. He swore to get his revenge for their actions…and he will…


	8. Supernatural creatures

_Sacrifice must be made for rewards._

If anything, Bararatu was an unspoken secret among the Nazis.

The monster that demanded a sacrifice.

The Nazis never told anyone about this, not even Ploetz, but they felt that they had to keep him a secret. After all, how is one supposed to explain the supernatural? And even if they tried to explain to Ploetz, it's not like he would believe what they said.

They tried to keep the Lovecraftian monster satisfied, tried to get it to get him to open the time portals for them, but certain things had to be sacrificed. Their comrades were usually the chosen targets, and since they were all clones of each other, nobody would ever notice.

Nobody except them. As astonishing it may seem, they knew that their deaths revealed a difference. A difference that revealed itself in daily life.

They noticed how there would be an empty bed beside them, and the fact that when their number was called, there was no answer. They couldn’t help but feel a sense of unexplainable absence without them. A feeling of emptiness in a crowd. It was true that they were clones, but to each other, they were more than just that. They were family.

But what could they do?

Nothing could bring back the dead.


	9. Death

_I am become death, destroyer of worlds._

Oppenheimer knew very well the effects his invention would have on the war. He just never wanted it to end this way.

The world silenced, watching on as an invention destruct the lives of thousands in a matter of moments. His invention.

He remembered the headlines all too well – the mushroom clouds forming over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan had surrendered. The reason so many innocent lives were lost, and much more were adversely affected - all because of his invention…because of him.

He had hoped that this would be the first and last time the nuclear threat would be used. But his hope went down the drain with the Cuban Missile Crisis. Politicians threatening the bomb to each other, their finger so eager to pull the trigger. They didn't care about the effects of their actions, they just wanted their enemy to concede. They were so selfish in those moments, just wanting to win a ideological war, at the expense of the innocence.

It was particularly hypocritical of him to think that way, especially when he created the weapon that started it all. But he didn't want it to be used that way, he didn't want politicians using it as leverage against others. He wanted it to be used as a last resort, to be used with caution, not with reckless bravado.

If only he hadn’t invented the bomb, then maybe all those innocent people would still be alive. Maybe if he hadn’t invented it, maybe it wouldn’t be used as a threat for war by nations. Maybe if it didn’t exist, millions wouldn’t live under the fear of nuclear apocalypse. But then again, what if he didn’t? The war would have raged on for months, years even…so much more could have died in war...

As he felt the blood of the innocent stain his hands, he sighed. Death was an inevitable thing. And it came to the innocent because of him.


	10. Song

_Fool me once, fool me twice, are you death or paradise?_

Betrayal came to Nikola Tesla in the form of Thomas Edison.

_Was I stupid to love you?_

After all this time, he shouldn’t have trusted Edison.

_Was I reckless to help?_

After all this time, he was foolish to trust him.

_Was it obvious to everybody else…?_

Though he never knew why Edison had done this, it didn’t matter.

_That I’ve fallen for a lie._

He never wanted anything to do with him anymore.

_You were never on my side._

As if it was beckoning him, his eyes turned to a photograph of them and froze. Picking it up gingerly, his pale eyes stared at the both of them. The two of them were smiling...happy...he was so innocent then, so unaware of what was to befall him. He trusted Thomas, it was obvious from the way he smiled. It was like they were long lost friends and they were having a good time.

Eyes brimming with hot tears, he tore the photograph apart, wishing that the two of them had never met, wishing that he never trusted so soon, wishing...

_Fool me once, fool me twice, are you death or paradise?_

Business brought them together, but lies tore them apart.

_Now you’ll never see me cry…_


	11. Rivalry

_Jung and Freud were rivals. But every rivalry has a beginning._

Sigmund and Carl were close. Once.

Until they split.

Granted, they had their differences, but nothing separated them more so than their personalities. Carl, with his sharp and calculative mind, was irked by Sigmund’s fixation on sexual urges. He remembered how much Sigmund had supported him through the years and how closely their works were intertwined. They weren't just a mentor and a student, they were two sides of the same coin. Always one with the other, always influencing and teaching each other. At least, that was how it all began.

Now, he despised Sigmund’s fixation on sexual urges. He never understood why he was so drawn to sex like a moth to flame. Maybe the cocaine had warped his thinking, or it was somehow related to his past, he didn’t know. Whatever the reason, it disgusted Carl to even think about it. They weren’t the most important factor for personality. Surely there were other reasons for things for a person's personality to form...and he knew it.

Things did not get better when Carl had published his work. On the contrary, it got worse. Not only did Sigmund, refuse to acknowledge it, he also caused all his peers to reject both him and his work.

Sigmund was no longer a mentor. 

Sigmund was no longer a friend or the other side of the coin.

Sigmund was a rival, someone that caused his downfall.


	12. Victory

_Victory is supposed to taste sweet, but why did it taste so bitter?_

Winston was, in the eyes of the Allied powers, a war time leader and a hero. But was he really?

To the people whose fathers, brothers, husbands, sons and friends died in the name of war, to the people who lost their loved ones to war, Winston was no hero. To the people whose loved ones became a different person after the war, Winston was no hero. Rather, he was someone who drove their loved ones to their graves prematurely, who gave them an early death in return for their services in war. He was someone who pushed men into a situation they never wanted to be in, and they paid for it with their lives and their sanity.

To the soldiers who came out alive but never the same, who watched comrades die, who had to spill blood, who had to sacrifice life as it once was to go to war, Winston was no hero. He was someone who put them into lives haunted by the ghosts and scars of war, lives that could never return to what they once before.

To the civilians who watched friends and family die, who wished for the bloodshed to end, Winston was no hero. He was someone who continued something they had wanted to end so desperately. 

And what was it all for? Fame? Power? By this time, he had long forgotten why he continued the war, but he did it with a fervent, almost consuming passion.

In the eyes of the Allies, however, Winston was a hero. He showed persistence and leadership, what it meant to be a survivor in the face of hardship. He was the face of the British war effort, a testament to their bravery.

Winston had achieved victory in the war, victory for the Allies, but did it have to come with the loss of so much innocence?


	13. Robot

_Watson was more than just a machine._

Watson was more than just a robot to Alexander.

They were always seen together, with Watson as Alexander’s assistant in the phone box. But their relationship was far deeper than just a man and his assistant.

It was obvious that he loved Watson dearly. When Watson was captured by Z3’s drone minions, Alexander’s mind reduced to panic. After all, Watson was his creation, his brain child. In fear of losing what he loved most, he enlisted the help of Alan, Ada and Nikola. Although the three of them didn't quite understand why Watson meant so much to him, they knew how much he meant to Alexander. And at night, he would regularly tell stories of his life to Watson. And although Watson was not a human, Alexander could tell that he was interested in the life he had.

Those who frequent Studio 3.14 found it strange, crazy even, to see Alexander with Watson by his side. Why was this man, with hair that seemed to be made of chalk, talking to a clunky old tin box? Surely, a man of distinguished airs such as himself could find a much better companion than Watson, a human one at least. Surely, a man of his caliber could find a more intriguing confidante than a giant tin can...couldn't he? But Ada and Alan knew better than to explain why, for they knew that the reason would bring nothing but silence tinged with pity.

The truth was, Alexander never did have a son. His only two sons died in infancy, rendering him sonless and distraught upon their deaths. They were things that he would never get over. And in an act of desperation for a son, Alexander created Watson, to be a replacement for the sons who were gone before he even had the chance to watch them grow. But as their relationship deepened, Watson was more than just a robotic son to Alexander. He was an assistant, a confidant, a companion and a friend, just as important to him as Ada and Alan. And he wouldn't trade Watson for anything else.


	14. Disappointment

_He simply could never compare to the real Einstein._

Albert knew that he was nothing more than just a clone. Albert knew that he was supposed to be a copy, a replacement of a dead genius. Merely a stand in for what they had lost.

Although the others, especially Churchill, tried to act like he was important to the team, he knew more than they ever realized. He saw their eyes rest on him, and their face seemed to change as quickly as the seasons – from a calm autumn to an icy winter. He detected a sarcasm in their voice when they referred to him, a poison that he knew all too well. And even though they never spoke a word when he picked up his sheets, stained from his bedwetting, he could feel their displeasure radiate from them. To them, he was all but the real Einstein.

He knew that they wanted him to be like the real Einstein, to live up to their own expectations of him. They wanted him to be an adult, to be more than _just_ a teenage boy. They wanted to pretend that he wasn’t a boy of fourteen. And he knew that his mind, brilliant as it was, could never be capable enough to mature that much in such little time.

But what could he say about it all?

What did his thoughts matter to them?

To them, he wasn’t the real Einstein.

He wasn’t an adult.

He was a disappointment. To them and the real Einstein.


	15. Future

_What were they supposed to be after the war?_

The future was supposed to be full of opportunities. But without the war, bleak was the Super Science Friends’ future.

What were they supposed to do now? After all, the battles they had fought were already won. Their powers were, in a word, irrelevant.

Marie was torn between two worlds – torn between two loves. She had wanted to go back to the time where Pierre was alive, when Irene and Eve were children. She had wanted to be there for them and…she missed them dearly. On the other hand, she had wanted to stay and rebuild what once was Poland. She was always a true Polish daughter and wanted to see its rebirth again.

Albert was now 18, he could go to college if he wanted to. However, with the occurrence of war, he didn’t even think about it. For one, he already knew what the teachers were going to teach, if there were any teachers left. Even if he didn’t, the war was still a heavy burden to carry for a child. What did studies teach him in comparison to war?

The betrayer of Nikola’s trust had died years before this war had even started, and Nikola could make more, better inventions now that the war was over. Now, Nikola would occasionally wake up not of creative spark, but of the deaths he had seen. After everything that happened, he wasn’t sure if he could trust people so easily.

The trauma of war had hit Charles particularly hard, and slowly, his composure was lost. He didn’t care much about the study of animal’s anatomy – too similar to the dead bodies he had seen in those four years. Sometimes, he stopped and wondered what could have been if war had not intervened.

This war was not Tapputi’s first, and she knew that it wouldn’t be her last. She had lost much more than the others, seen more deaths than the other five combined. And as much as she hated to admit it, she hated the fact that anyone and everyone she would have loved will die before her. To her, war wasn’t much of a tragedy, but a sad reality she had gotten used to.

Sigmund could choose to go back to his timeline and spend some time with his family, but the trauma of many couldn’t be ignored by him. It was his job as a psychoanalyst, to listen to people’s thoughts and give them a sort of escape and closure from their trauma. But sometimes, as much as he listened to people’s thoughts, he wished that his could be listened to as well. A fear of history repeating itself, manifesting in his mind.

The future was supposed to be bright for them. But why did it feel so dark?


	16. Balloon

_It was a balloon that started it all. It was a balloon that ended it._

Albert stared at the corpse before him. Tall, bearded and scarred in an eye, it was hard to believe that he was once someone that he had seen before. Someone that was the team’s worst enemy.

Although the details were unclear, Albert knew that Sigmund made him lust after his mother the way a man lusts after a woman. That incident resulted in his balloon flying away into the endless sky, never to return. He knew that he borrowed a balloon from him to give Nikola his electricity powers via static. He remembered how heartbroken he was when Marie won the Nobel Prize instead of him, and how his parents proceeded to argue like bitter enemies. If anything, he could never forget how the Science Mobile ran over his mother like a dog. Her body contorted into an unnerving angle, drenched in a pool of her own blood. Even for someone not skilled in the field of medicine, it was obvious she was dead.

The Super Science Friends had taken many things from his life – his relationship with his mother, his balloon, his Nobel Prize and his mother’s life. Philipp Lenard had every reason to hate the team. Phillip Lenard had every reason to seek revenge for the damage they have done to his life. After everything that had happened between them, it was natural for dislike to change to hatred. But it didn’t have to end like this.

And it all started over a balloon…

They were fated to be enemies from the moment their lives crossed for the first time. But it didn’t have to end with the end of one.


	17. Dead zone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I know this isn't related to episode 7 of season 1, with it happening in the dead zone and all, but I decided to take a different approach for writing for this prompt. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy my interpretation of this prompt for SSF 17.

_The dead zone. The place without life._

If there was anything that was universally known, it was that war left death in its wake. Tapputi knew this all too well.

This war was not her first one, and she knew that it would not be her last. And for as long as she lives, she will always remember crimson being spilled on the ground. To her, war was just an unfortunate reality of life that she never gotten used to.

She remembered the fear for the lives of herself and her allies as they fled from enemies. The panic and fear in the air as soldiers, were made to kill for the sake of it. The dead bodies littering the floor. She remembered the blood bath that would always ensue from battles, some of it being of her friends. It was the kind of thing that happened in all wars.

Part of her questioned what the difference was between this war and the First World War. After all, in both wars, countries were made to pick a side, and people were sent to die. And she had knew that it wasn’t too long ago that the First had happened, the scars left from it leading to where she was now. But there were two things about both wars that stood out to Tapputi. The first one was waged by royals, and driven by territory. This one, however, was waged by politicians and driven by ideology.

She hated how wars were always waged in the name of selfishness, and how at the end of the day, it left a hole in her heart, a hole vacated by her loved ones, never to be replaced.

War – the being that leaves dead zones in hearts.


	18. Seduction

_She was a diamond – highly desired but inimitable._

Mata Hari. A diamond surrounded by glass. A jewel on a necklace. A gold bar surrounded by cheap copper. Highly prized, distinguishable but inimitable.

She had always been rather striking since young. And how was it possible to not notice her? After all, she was dark haired and olive skinned, a contrast to the fair hair and skin of her schoolmates. The contrast only added to her exotic beauty, which proved a valuable asset in difficult situations.

Her beauty, though defining, raised a particularly good question. Why was she an ally of the Nazis? Why did she care? They desired blonde, fair skinned and blue-eyed people; the perfect ones, the ones poised to become the master race. And it wasn’t like she actually fitted the image of an Aryan woman. She was tall, yes, but with dark features and olive skin, she stuck out like a sore thumb. And the Nazis, well, they associated those features with Jews. To them, those features were of the enemy, the undesirable. She was also well aware of that, and that if she was in Nazi Germany, she would have drawn immediate suspicion. Hell, she could be arrested and even killed at worst.

So why did she ever join forces with them? Why did she ever join a group that associated her physical characteristics with something "bad"?

Was it to defeat the Super Science Friends? Maybe, but surely there were other ways to do it.

Was it out of loyalty? Who knows?

Was it out of pure thrill? It’s plausible. After all, she had her way of pursuing fame and action.

Whatever the reason was, it wasn’t important. For now, she focuses on one thing alone. The recruitment of allies.

Mata Hari’s looks make her stand out like the full moon in the night sky, but they also make her offers all the more seductive.


	19. Apple

_Scarlet had never looked so wrong._

  
An apple. The reason Isaac Newton lay dead in a field.

Albert had found it difficult to even look at an apple after Isaac’s death. And although he tried to brush it off from the others, especially Churchill, he felt his heart slowly fall apart as he looked at the fruit before him. This simple, innocent looking scarlet fruit, it couldn’t do any harm…right?

Wrong. Because of an apple, history had changed, and not for the better. Because of an apple, the weight of Isaac’s death befell on Albert.

Albert could try to get the Science Mobile to take him back, back to when he was alive. He could have a chance to undo his mistake, and maybe his nightmares would cease to haunt him.

But what would any of the team say? What would Churchill say? He could imagine how they would react – a firm no.

What did their opinions matter, Albert’s inner voice retorted. This was important to him; this was important to history. Why should the opinions of the team affect him when he, the clone of Albert Einstein, could be able to save Isaac Newton from an early death, and set history back into its original state? Why should his posters continue to show a completely different person - Sigmund with a tacky blond woman's wig, when it should have had Isaac's face on them? Why should he have these recurring nightmares about Isaac’s death while the rest go on with life as if nothing ever happened? Why did they continue to act as if Isaac's death was not important to history and him?

He didn't want those opinions to matter. As long as Isaac was safe, it was all that mattered.

With renewed determination, Albert dashed down the halls to the Science Mobile, unaware of the series of events that would trail behind.


	20. Space

_Emptiness isn’t what he wanted. But it was what he had._

Lonely was Louis Pasteur without his family.

When he first joined the Just Okay Science Friends, he was buried in grief and mourning. Three of his children – Jeanne, Cecile and Camille, were dead. At that time, even the sky and heavens seemed to mourn their deaths, and as sheets of rain fell, Louis wished that death would not take any more of his children from him. But as fate had it, he was taken away from his children into a time and place that he barely understood.

Apparently, there was a world war happening outside the base. And France has fallen.

As Louis stared absently at the ceiling, he hoped that this war would end soon, for he dearly missed his children and Marie, his wife. He knew that this wishing of his was redundant, but what much could he do to ease his fears? What could he do in situations such as this?

The other team members themselves were friendly enough. They were the people he spent the most time with in this present, and they were close and honest with each other. After all, they were each other’s secret keepers, and each other’s second family.

But to Louis, however, as close as he was with them, they couldn’t fill the empty space that once were his children. Because even the closest of friends could never fill up the hole in his heart that belonged to Jeanne, Camille and Cecile.


	21. Kid

_He was just a child._

Sometimes, the Super Science Friends forgot that Albert was a child, not a carbon copy of a long dead friend.

They forgot that he wasn’t the real Albert, and the implications of believing that they were one and the same. The other five were close to the original Albert. They would often laugh and joke, often over the most mundane of things, and their frequent discussions of science and theories between each other. The original Albert was someone they could easily let loose around, and he was a genius. The six of them were as close as a family.

Then he was murdered, and replaced with a teenage clone.

When the other five looked at this Albert, they looked at each other with questioning glances. Was this the Albert that they knew? No. He was nothing more than a pathetic attempt to recreate the real Albert. But Churchill insisted that the teenager be referred to as Albert Einstein.

That assumption they made didn’t help this Albert any better, because they looked at him, and saw not the Albert they knew. They saw not a friend reborn as a child. They saw a weak attempt to bring him back.

Now that he had disappeared, they should be happy. But they weren’t.   
  
Why?

As much as the five of them refused to admit it, they had missed teenage Albert as much as the original one, maybe even more so. Because granted, he wasn’t the original one, but he brought something to the team. Something the original one never had. A childlike enthusiasm for the things that he loved, and a willingness to risk himself to save his loved ones.

They forgot that he was a child, not an image of what he should be compared to the real Albert.

And he was gone.


	22. Teamwork

_The two of them were so different yet worked together so well._

Ada and Alan were as different as chalk and cheese. But yet, the duo worked so well together as a team.

Ada, the leader of the duo, tended to be the more outspoken of the duo. She wasn’t the type to sit around and do nothing, and would rather go out into the world and take action against things. She was the adrenaline rush, the thrill in adventures. This, however, did not make her a reckless thrill seeker. Even though she was the type that’s based on action, she wouldn’t actively seek it unless it was for a good reason. She still remembered how Watson was whisked away to New Zurich, and Alexander Graham Bell asked the two of them and Nikola Tesla to help.

Alan, the more reserved one of the duo, was not one to be underestimated. He was the person that prefers being behind the scenes, but was the one who never misses out a detail. While he may not have the gung-ho personality of Ada, he was the mastermind of the duo, the one who ensures that the mistakes in their plans were limited.

People sometimes wondered how the two of them could even stand each other, considering that they were as different as black and white. But in the end, opposites attract…

…don’t they?


	23. Programming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 23 June 2020: 01001000 01100001 01110000 01110000 01111001 00100000 01100010 01101001 01110010 01110100 01101000 01100100 01100001 01111001 00100000 01000001 01101100 01100001 01101110 00100001

_Machines, to him, were easy to decode. However, the same couldn’t be said for other people._

Alan’s expertise in programming was stuff of legend in Studio 3.14. It was one of those things that most people would find confusing to learn, as if coding was an entirely new language on its own, but it was something that was appreciated, especially when the devices run amok.

But Alan himself was something that was of just as much interest to clubbers as his computer skills. He was not only intelligent, but he has a sort of aloof charm to him. People couldn’t help but notice how his piercing eyes were the colour of lividus, and how he was a paradox of a man – so outwardly calm, yet so passionate about the things he loves. So intelligent when it comes to mathematics, but awkward when it comes to other people. The others also noticed how he was always frank with his answers, never one to beat around the bush. He also was a bit of a mystery to the clubbers. For one, he doesn’t speak as much as Ada does, instead preferring to be alone with his coding algorithms and computer. And while everyone else comes to Studio 3.14 to look for a good time, or someone to spend the night with, he comes with Ada to make plans about some distant event. The fact that they did so in complete privacy made him seem all the more mysterious. Were they dating? Were they discussing something that was too risky to be said in public? Or were they planning something...sinister? Who knows? 

The other clubbers wished that they had got to know Alan better, especially since he didn’t frequent the place as much as Ada did. And when he did come to Studio 3.14, it was usually to meet her, and he always disappeared behind a curtain, only to vanish when people looked for him. As much as the others pestered the bartenders about him and his private life, they stayed quiet. For they knew that Alan was not someone without secrets. And they knew that his secret may be something of ridicule among the crowd, something to frown upon.

Alan Turing was the Einstein of coding. But it didn’t mean that he was a godlike figure. He was, after all, a human being, deserving of respect as the rest, despite his secrets.


	24. Invention

_The atomic bomb was his invention. He must bear its implications._

J. Robert Oppenheimer was a man of many regrets. The atomic bomb was his biggest one.

When he first started developing nuclear weapons, he never thought that it would cause so much impact on how everything would unfold. To him, this invention meant something. Something that would pave the way to a better time, and something to be used only in the direst of consequences. He never expected the bomb to be used so quickly. Thus, when Winston first approached him to weaponize his powers and invention, he flatly refused. And when Winston approached Enrico and Albert next, Robert knew that this wouldn’t end well.

How could he even think about turning this invention of his into something that symbolised power and might on a global stage? His powers were a deadly force, not something to be used solely to get what politicians wanted. That was never the plan for his invention.

Was this war some time of sick game that Winston was desperately trying to win? Did he gain pleasure from every battle won? 

Is he even aware of the damage his inventions would do? Oppenheimer was, but for Winston, not so much.  


Granted, he didn’t want the Axis Powers to conquer the world, but it doesn’t give Winston the right to use the weapons to establish dominance. And what about after the war? Other leaders surely would use this invention of his to gain political leverage. After all, it would guarantee destruction of the enemy, but at what cost? 

Looking at the past and present, he sighed with a twinge of regret. Because inventions are supposed to improve the lives of others, but why did his end the lives of so many others prematurely?


	25. Hatred

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay this doesn't exactly fit the theme, but I decided to interpret it differently again

_Fear of something is at the root of hate for others, and hate within will eventually destroy the hater. - George Washington Carver_

George and Gerty were as different as chalk and cheese, but they were both the victims of hate and prejudice.

George was part of a minority back in America, and was born a slave during the Civil War. And even though he was freed in infancy, prejudice was not prevented from befalling him and his fellows. He remembered the constant lynching of fellow African Americans. The death that came and went like the wind. To the whites, this was normal. This was acceptable. And to top it all off, the murderers walked away free, as if they did nothing wrong. As if the victims' murders were justified, even though they did nothing wrong.

He knew this was wrong on so many levels, but what would have happened if he spoke out against it? He never dared to find out. 

The victims didn't do anything to deserve to die, in fact, most of them were just minding their own business and going about their lives. George never quite knew why the whites ever did this, but he had always had that impression that their hatred was born out of fear. Fear that the people they once treated like property would be a threat to them and their livelihoods. Fear that they would rise up. Fear that the people who they once treated as property would treat them the same way.

Gerty was raised in a Jewish family, and converted to Catholicism before she had married Carl. However, this didn’t help the rising anti-Semitism in Europe. Back in Prague, the Jewish community had already been intricately weaved into the community, and they were rather successful business people. However, this did nothing to prevent prejudice from seeping in. The fact that they had stood the test of time, it seemed, posed a threat. To the others, the Jewish were a threat.

She never did find out why the prejudice spread like wildfire, however, she hypothesized that the reason it was ever born was because of the perceived threat of a difference of faith.

Fear was something that if taken to extreme, can divide in the worst of ways.


	26. Change of appearance

_This isn’t the kind of thing one would see on him._

Something about Nikola had changed since the last time on the Snake Pit.

And not for the better.

They had noticed how it had affected his appearance; his once cleanshaven face was a rainforest compared to the desert it once was. And his dark hair, usually so neat and well groomed, was now dishevelled, giving him an air of scruffiness.

Although the team never spoke about it, they knew it had something to do with the most conspicuous difference in his physical appearance – an arm that wasn’t of skin and bone, but of metal and bolts. They never knew what happened in the Snake Pit that lead to this change, or who actually caused it, but they knew that it had affected him badly. The withdrawal symptoms, negligence of his physical appearance(which he usually tended to meticulously) and losing interest in his many unusual inventions - if anything, he was depressed after the ordeal.

How could it not though? After all, he had literally lost a limb. Surely, that would be able to cause trauma in anyone, even more so in Nikola of all people. Maybe the judges turned his invention, eccentric as it was, against him. Or maybe he had been through a daring solo adventure and narrowly escaped with his life. They didn’t know, but they knew that Nikola would never tell them about it.

That, in an odd sense, showed how much they knew each other. They were not best friends, nor were they meant to be, but they understood each other enough to be able to deduce from a change in appearance.


	27. War

_This was essentially a repeat of history._

After everything that happened in The Great War, another war of a similar scale was the last place that Georges would ever want to be in. But here he was, in war riddled London, in another World War.

He was a young man of 20 – a university student when The Great War happened. He remembered the plans he had originally made with his younger brother of 18, Jacques – to do a biking tour of the Tirol. Then came the events of August 1914. Although the brothers came out of the war alive, they knew that things would never be the same as they were before. Because in those years at war, they had seen The Green Reaper come for young men such as themselves. And mon dieu, the way it came for those soldiers. A last, desperate attempt to breathe, before their lungs and hearts gave out…

Boy soldiers were not the only ones that died either. The brothers Lemaître had to watch on helplessly as innocent civilians, some of them children, had their lives taken forcibly from them. Georges wished that he could have done something, but he was just a soldier, made to carry out heartless orders.

And as much as he tried to forget those memories, tried to heal as much as he can, still, they would return to him as quickly and as silently as the wind.

Many would wonder why Georges, after being through a hell that nobody would ever dare to go through, would ever accept Churchill’s offer. After all, he had been through a war as a young man, surely...he had been through enough, hadn’t he? He had been through war as a young man, and now it was another war that he was living through. He knew that he didn’t want to be involved, didn't want to fight another war against the Germans, for he feared a repeat of the events less than 30 years before. But Churchill, however, made an offer that was difficult to refuse...

Now, he was in a war of a similar scale, a repeat of history. But sometimes, he wondered what would happened had he refused the offer, and didn't have to live through another war...


	28. Dream

_They say dreams come true, but do they really?_

Dashed were dreams when the war happened.

Ever since the war happened, Marie had never been so alone. In this time period, Pierre was gone for nearly 40 years, and Irene and Eve were already adults and had their own families. She had wished to go back to the past, wanted to spend another moment with her family, but she knew that Winston would never allow it. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to liberate Poland, but she never wanted to live through another world war. She wanted to be with her family.

Louis felt no different. Camille, Cecile and Jeanne were lying in coffins, and he wanted nothing more than to spend just one more moment with his children, one more minute with his family…he never wanted to be whisked away into a war that he had no knowledge of. He didn’t even know that there was a first world war to begin with. He didn’t want to be in war-stricken London. He wanted to be with his children.

Georges never wanted to live through another war. He was young when The Great War happened, he had seen enough horrors that haunted him in his sleep. He didn’t wish for his memories from decades past to greet him like an old friend. Memories that he wanted to desperately forget. Sometimes, he wondered to himself why he even accepted Churchill’s offer at all…

Sometimes, they wondered what would have happened if they went for their dreams instead of duty…


	29. Anything SSF related - TIME

_Time is cruel to the survivors of tragedy._

Time was supposed to heal emotional scars, they said.

Apparently, they thought wrong.

Albert was 18 when the war was over. He could go to college now, and he could, for once, live the rest of his life as a teenager instead of a Super Science Friend. He could have a chance to be surrounded by people of his age rather than the adults he had lived with all his life. But to Albert, what did studies or peers even mean to him after the war, after seeing deaths aplenty. Furthermore, war had taught him things that any level of education would never have. So many had died in the war, and he was unprepared to cause another.

Marie could return to her time period, now that Poland was liberated. But she silently wondered if she was considered disloyal for wishing to return to her family. She could help rebuild her homeland, return it to its former glory…but did she want to see the rubble of where she used to call home?

Charles slowly lost humanity after the war, doubtless from the trauma that he had been through. The war had taught him how to relish the death of enemies, something even his papers could never teach…Sometimes, he wished that his education had better prepared him for war…

Nikola could invent new things, better, more brilliant things now. After all, the man who stole his patents was long gone. The future was his to change. However, he still worried. He worried not for the theft of patents, but for the theft of innocent lives by his inventions. He saw how the atomic bomb devastated, and he did not want it to happen again.

This was by no means Tapputi’s first war, and she knew it would never be her last. How many times has she lost someone that she loved dearly to war…?

Sigmund’s mind was never quite the same, for he had been through two world wars. But did it snap because of the trauma…or because of perversion?


	30. SSF creators

Okay so...

I just wanna say thank you SSF creators and the team for bringing us this amazing show. And without it, well, my life would be a lot more boring(also, if it were not for the show, I wouldn't been introduced to my favourite physicist/astronomer Georges Lemaitre so yay).

And although I have been in the fandom for less than 6 months, I have grown to love this amazing show.

Also, thanks to the SSF: Time Runner team, Stea Storch, LilyOr, Grover and Mordecai for taking the time to develop and animate scenes for the game.(PS I really enjoyed it)

It has been a blast writing this Super Science June fic, and you guys can follow me on IG @concertobloom.97 , where I would be posting art that I draw.

Thank you for being a source of comfort in this shitty year, Super Science Friends,

_Concerto_


End file.
